The Changing Impact of Migration on the Population Compositions of Origin and Destination Metropolitan Areas.

Frey, William H.

Increased migration to the sunbelt and the metropolitan-nonmetropolitan "turnaround" represent departures from longstanding redistribution trends. Although these patterns have been examined from a number of perspectives, their consequences for individiual metropolitan areas have not been brought to light. In the present study, stream-disaggregated data for the late 1950s and late 1960s are employed to assess the impact of recent migration for the sizes and compositions of white populations in 31 large metropolitan areas. Findings indicate that most large northern standard metropolitan statistical areas (SMSAs) have been experiencing the "new" migration patterns since the late 1950s. They have incurred net out-movements of whites to both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas but, due to exchanges with nonmetropolitan areas, have managed to retain greater numbers of college graduates and professional workers. Although southern and western SMSAs had not yet sustained losses to their nonmetropolitan environs during this period, they did appear to gain substantially from the interregional metropolitan redistribution with respect to both their total and high status populations. (Author/EB)